Can't Stand You

My New Best Friend

Edited (5/21/20)

I stood watching the door for several moments, considering running out of it so I could jump in the car before anyone noticed I was here. There was still a small knot of fear that stayed sunken in to the pit of my stomach. The air temperature seemed to drop and goose bumps popped up on my bare arms and shoulders. I turned on my heel and headed back to the registration table so I didn't actually carry out my escape plan. By pure will, my feet continued to put one in front of the other as I moved away from the parking lot and into the belly of the beast. The three coaches still sat behind the table with their clipboards, finishing up with reviewing the forms. 

"So what now?" I asked causally. 

"We're going to have a coaches-players meeting in about 5 minutes. You can take a seat at one of the tables and we'll get going soon," Coach Luck replied looking up from his papers.

"Thanks," I said heading off to find an empty chair. 

Realizing I would probably be spending quite a bit of time here, I took a better look around the room. Most of the round tables seated six people around it and were scattered across the middle of the room. An open serving counter was on the far left wall and stretched across the whole wall. A bulletin board was hung on the other wall and a small platform was set up under it for someone to speak on. Flyers were already tacked on to the board.

The tables around the room were already mostly filled up and I did not really want to sit at a table with any of these guys. I knew a third of them were going to become my teammates but I was still weary of them. 

Fortunately, I spotted a table towards the back with only one other person sitting at it. His head was cast downwards, so I took my chances and decided to try there. The table was at the back, meaning I was going to have to go past all the other tables. I looked for the fastest way to the table and started to hurry that way. As I sped walked towards my destination, confused looks flickered past, but shortly after, winks and wolf whistles replaced them. I did my best to ignore them, but when I finally got to the back table, I collapsed into the closest chair.

The guy who was sitting at the table looked up, startled, from my flopping into the seat and pushed shaggy brown hair out of his eyes. This guy or should I say kid was not what I was expecting. He was probably only about 13 or 14 years old. Large brown eyes the size of saucers stared at me as I stared back. The kid was rail thin and freckles covered his nose and cheeks. His eyes reflected the same fear that I was certain was in my eyes as well.

"Hi," I said finally breaking the silence.

"Hello," the kid said back, his voice cracking on the "o."

I suppressed a giggle at his voice cracking. Someone was going through puberty. No wonder he was over here by himself. Not only was he the smallest one in the room, but I could only imagine the relentless teasing from the occasional voice crack.  

"I'm Gloria," I said sticking my hand out.

"Harrison," he replied shaking my hand lightly.

I nodded my head before I opened my mouth to ask the question I was dying to know the answer to. "How old are you?"

"I'm 14," he answered, his voice cracking again. He really was only a baby. 

"Wow. You're really young. That's awesome that you're here" I said honestly. 

He shrugged. "I guess. They don't think so," he nodded his head towards the rest of the room. "They just see that I'm small and that my voice cracks... Are you someone's sister?" he looked at me quizzically. It probably just dawned on him it was a bit odd for him to be sitting with a girl at the moment.